The Mysterious Man
by ashrac
Summary: A tramp had recently been sighted near the city's main telephone exchange and his activities seemed suspicious. The telephone exchange security staff had tried to evict the tramp a couple of times but all in vain. He would move away only to come back again later. The matter was then reported to the police.The inspector ask the boys to help him get to the bottom of the matter...


Summer holidays had just begun and Raju, Rohit , Sunil and Shivansh were still fresh from solving the mystery of the **"The Mysterious Piece Of Paper". **The inspector, whose name was Sameer , was so impressed with the boys that he invited them to his police station and decided to teach them some intricacies of good detective work. The boys parents also supported the idea and never objected to their children going to police station to learn the nitty gritty of good detective work.

One day inspector Sameer visited Rohit's house and a meeting was arranged with all the boys and their parents. At the meeting the inspector told them that since the boys had learned a few tricks of good detection, he would like them to handle a small case for him. A tramp had recently been sighted near the city's main telephone exchange and his activities seemed suspicious. The telephone exchange security staff had tried to evict the tramp a couple of times but all in vain. He would move away only to come back again later. The matter was then reported to the police. Since the police had no concrete proof so they were unable to take appropriate action against him. The inspector did not want to put his men on the job as this would alert the tramp. So the inspector wanted the boys to tail the suspect and take as much information about him as possible without raising any suspicions.

The next day the boys dressed themselves like beggars and started for the place where the tramp was holding himself up. They chose a spot close to the tramp and stationed themselves there. Since they were children and dressed like beggars the tramp did not seem to notice them. The boys also, visibly, showed no interest in the tramp either .They seemed to be spending the whole day just sitting there doing nothing but in reality their eyes were focussed on the tramp and they were watching his each and every move. As the night approached they took turns to keep an eye on the tramp. The next day while Rohit and Shivansh seemed to go for begging, the other two stayed behind and kept a watch on the tramp. Up till now the tramp had not shown any signs of suspicious activity. He was just sitting there lost in himself. By evening Rohit and Shivansh came back. The whole day the boys had stayed at their homes and had brought food for Sunil and Raju. As the night approached they again took guard as on previous night. Then on the next day, Sunil and Raju , went for begging , while the other two stayed behind. This continued for next two three days, but nothing suspicious was noted. The tramp would only talk to himself and seemed to be engrossed in his own thoughts. He would eat whatever passersby gave him. His whole world seemed to be revolving around the very spot he was sitting. It seemed the tramp was clean and above suspicion. The boys even thought of calling off their surveillance and reported their findings to the inspector. The inspector advised them to stay for another two more days and then, if nothing happened, to call off their investigation. One more day passed without any incident, but then on the night of the next day they saw the tramp move. He picked himself up from his position and came towards the boys. After checking that the boys were indeed asleep, he picked up his things and started to walk towards the main road. Sunil and Rohit at once took to their feet and started to shadow the tramp, while the other two boys stayed behind. Once on the main road he took a seat inside a waiting car which then sped off in the direction of the residential complex. Rohit took out his notebook and noted down the number of the car. As they had no vehicle at their disposal so the boys had to wait for the car to return. The boys must have waited for about an hour but the car did not come back. Seeing no point in wasting any more time they returned back to their location. At the location the boys waited for the tramp to return for three more days but he did not show up, so they reported the matter to the inspector who in turn advised them to call of their surveillance and return back.

Once back, the boys met inspector Sameer at the police station and narrated the whole sequence of events in detail. They also gave him the car number in which the tramp went. The inspector immediately sent the number for verification. Upon investigation the car number turned out to be fake. Now the things became serious and the inspector had become sure that something untoward was being planned. So he thought it best to take the matter in his own hand and keep the boys away from further investigation as the case was now turning to be dangerous. The boys requested the inspector to let them be in the case. But the inspector seemed to be in no mood to relent, for he did not want to put their lives to risk. So the boys returned home dejected.

Not to be bogged down by the dangerous situations, the boys decided to investigate on their own. To start with they decided to trace the path taken by the tramp. They took their bicycles and went to the spot on the main road where the tramp had taken the car. They then bicycled their way to the residential complex. Upon reaching the residential complex, they parked their cycles under a tree overlooking the complex and took positions to keep a watch on the complex. They were working in such a way that to an onlooker they were just a bunch of boys idling under the shade of a tree. They came to the spot for next two three days but their surveillance did not yield the desired result. There seemed to be no trace of either the car or the tramp. They questioned the security guards at the complex but they had also not seen any car matching boys's description. One important thing that the guards did tell them was that the road, on which the residential complex stood, led to a small jungle some way ahead. The boys immediately took to the road and headed for the jungle. Upon reaching the jungle they started their search for any clue that would lead them to the car or the tramp. They formed two separate parties and started the search from two opposite sides. Since the jungle was not big it did not take them long to search it. There seemed to be nothing that might give them a clue. They searched again with the hope that the second search might throw up some results but again the end result was the same as before. They were about to abandon their search when they heard the sound of an engine coming from the main road. Though it was feeble but there was no mistake about it being the sound of a car engine. They quickly hid themselves behind a tree and waited for the car to arrive. After a few minutes of wait the car arrived. It was the same car which had carried the tramp. The man that got out of the car was a well dressed man but the boys instantly recognised him to be the tramp. They would not have recognised the man had they not been on his tail for so long. Upon leaving the car the tramp went towards a particular direction along with the driver of the car. Silently the boys also followed them. After walking for about ten, fifteen feet the men entered a thick bush and vanished. The boys waited for another fifteen minutes at their hiding place and when no one appeared they also went towards the bush. They parted the bush and saw a dried tree trunk. Except that, there was nothing else. There was no trace of the men. While they were examining the area they heard a hissing sound which made them to jump and look for a hiding place. No sooner were they hidden they saw the tree trunk parting from in between and revealing a secret entrance. The two men were coming out of the passage. They were talking in low voices and seemed excited. From the position the boys were hiding they could not hear much except that they were excited about their work being almost complete and that the time was near to put their plan to action. Hearing their words a chill ran through the spine of the boys. All the boys were thinking the same thing. What was their task that they had completed? and What were these men planning to do? But one thing was clear, whatever they were planning, was going to be very dangerous. The answers to all their questions lay inside that tree trunk. So they waited for the men to leave. When the men were gone for half an hour , they searched for the tree trunk for any button or lever that might open the door to the secret passage. It was when Sunil was running his hand over the tree truck he accidentely clicked what felt like a button and the tree trunk parted making way for the secret passage. Upon seeing the passage the boys's heart started to pound heavily. They wanted to go in immediately but had to shelve their idea. Entering an unknown place without any preparations could be very dangerous. They did not know how many men might be there inside, also if there were men inside, would they be armed or not. So it was not wise for them to put their lives to risk. Seeing no other alternative they called inspector Sameer and told him everything. Initially the inspector was angry with the boys for not following his instructions, but then appreciated their efforts. Though overtly he would cross with the boys but inside his heart the inspector was always proud of them. He told them to wait for him outside and keep an eye for any movement. The boys found a suitable hiding place and kept an eye on the secret door. The inspector reached them in an hour with his full team. They were heavily armed. During the time the boys had waited for the inspector no one went in or came out of the secret passage.

Upon reaching the boys the inspector was shown the secret passage. The inspector told his men to enter the passage carefully and silently. The boys were told to wait outside as it could be very dangerous inside. But the boys were insistent to go inside. So the inspector relented and instructed them to remain close to him and not to try anything silly. Upon entering the door to secret entrance they came across a flight of steps leading down. As soon as they were about to descend the steps they were greeted by a volley of shots fired from beneath. Since the shots were fired blindly most of the shots missed their mark. But some did find their target. One shot caught the leg of one of the constables, while the other kissed the earlobe of the second one and a third one peeled some skin from the arm of the third policemen. Sensing trouble, the inspector advised the boys to remain outside with the injured constable. He promised that as soon as the situation was brought under control he would call them inside. The boys did not have to wait long and the inspector called the boys inside.

Inside it was total chaos. The basement was full of gun powder smell and the floor was littered with blood marks. Bodies of three dead men lay on the passage in between the row of rooms while three men had been captured live. The inspector and his men were also hurt but their injuries were only minor and they all seemed to be in high spirits.

Once the basement was cleared of any type of opposition, the inspector went for a thorough search of the hiding place. The inspector formed two teams and started to search each room on both sides of the passage. The boys were in the inspector's team. They started with the rooms on the right hand side of the passage. The first room was empty and of no interest to the search party. The second room had an almirah containing eatables. There was a table in the centre of the room around which six chairs were arranged visibly to form a dinning table. Except that there was nothing of value. The search of the third room proved to be a treasure trough of information. A huge map of the city hung up on one of the walls and marks were put on all major installations of the city like the telephone exchange, power plant, water treatment plant, City hospital etc and a date was mentioned below each mark. There was a side table beneath the map which contained some drawing instruments scattered on it. A search of the drawers of the table revealed some carefully folded blue prints of the major installations of the city. The drawing instruments were visibly used to draw these detailed blue prints. The inspector took all the instruments and the blue prints in his possession and proceeded to the next room which was a dark room. The room contained a table housing some photographic equipments. Hung on a wire above the table were detailed photographs of each major installation taken from various angles. All the photographs were impounded as evidence. The last two rooms were used as the control rooms and contained sophisticated communication equipments. There were monitors which were connected to close circuit television cameras and monitored the activity of each room.

The second group conducting the search operations of the rows on the left hand side of the passage reported that the first two rooms on the other side of the passage were used as barracks for the inmates while the next three rooms were turned into a makeshift factory used to assemble different types of bombs. They had found some crates containing completely assembled bombs in one of the rooms while the in other room work was going on to assemble the bombs when the police party struck. The third and the last room housed some machines to assemble the bombs.

After gathering all the evidences and taking the captured fugitives into custody, the inspector sealed the area and placed heavily armed guards at it's entrance to secure the place. After satisfying himself with the arrangements, the inspector left along with his party and the boys who were then dropped off where they had left their bicycles. Picking up their bicycles the boys left for their homes.

After a couple of days the boys received a call from the inspector asking them to come to the police station. The inspector was waiting for them when the boys reached the police station. The inspector told the boys that the captured fugitives had provided the police some very important information upon sustained interrogation. The fugitives told the inspector that they were nationals of the neighbouring country who had come to their land for carrying out terrorist activities. Their main aim was to destroy the major installations of the city like telephone exchange, city's main general hospital, post office etc. and to inflict as much damage as possible. To carry out their objective they had landed in the city one month earlier and toured the city for few days. They then prepared a detailed map of the city and marked the location of all the major installations. They also put dates below each installation signalling when they planned to destroy that particular installation. They got all their instructions from an army officer based in the neighbouring country. The tramp was their mastermind here and overlooked every operation and reported the progress to their handlers in the neighbouring country. Sitting near to the telephone exchange, the tramp would keep an eye on the telephone exchange as well as pass on instructions to his colleagues. He followed the same technique, disguising himself as a beggar, to keep an eye on the city hospital. Once his job was complete at one installation he would move to the next one.

Once the real identity of all the terrorists was known it was just a matter of time before they were caught and before they could inflict any damage to the city installations. The busting of a terrorist network was the main headline of all the newspapers of the city the next day. The inspector and his team were showered with heaps of praises by the reporters. A special mention was made of the heroics of the boys who did not care about their lives to save their city from a terrorist attack.


End file.
